How to .. Make Tramp Safety Mats & a Ladder:

We inherited a tramp at Christmas time (see here).

It has been such a blessing - both the boys spend a LOT of time on it.

Unfortunately for Master K (2yr), carrying him out to the tramp was getting old REALLY fast (since he couldn't get on by himself).

Also I was getting sick of holding my breath every time he fell over, with images of split open heads and trips to A&E at the hospital flashing through my imagination.

SO first .. I priced up some safety mats. $230. OUCH. That is WAAAYY to pricey for cheap ol' me! (I mean come on, you can buy a brand new small tramp WITH safety pads for that price!)

So I decided to do a little DIY and make my own. Off to Arthurs Emporium. Now for those of you who don't know about this place it is AWESOME. Yes, in CAPITALS!! This place has EVERYTHING you could ever want for any DIY project!! Material, beads, chain, wood, STUFF .. lots and LOTS of STUFF!!

So it was the perfect place to get some marine carpet! Even better, when I hung around like a bad smell feeling every kind of fabric and wouldn't go away, the ladies fished out some marine carpet with some glue damage (totally fine for what I wanted it for!) and gave it to me half price *SCORE!*

So for $40 I had my material.

I chopped it into strips and attached it to the tramp. This may sound easy but it really wasn't. First I was going to sew it on. Then I decided that was too hard and hubby came up with some industrial velcro that we ended up stapling on. That didn't work so well so we stapled the strips of velcro round the bars to try hold it on. The staples did not hold on so well. So now I had spikey staples sticking out and marine carpet flying everywhere in the wind.

Bring in the cable ties. Cable ties are my friends :-)

They held it on SWEET - and are STILL holding it on more to the point!

One problem solved, now for the ladder. This was VERY easy for me. Probably because I had nothing to do with it. 1. Ask Carl if he will make one. 2. Say thank you when one arrives next to the tramp.

Easy :-) (Thanks babe!)

So now we have a super fun, safe tramp that the kids can get on themselves YAY! :-)

Sima J